Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems and methods for visually presenting data. Among other fields and applications, the invention has utility in presenting data in a visually organized fashion.
Description of Related Art
Conventional Web search engines, such as Google, react to a user typing (or verbally inputting) a series of words. Search engines use an algorithm to process the terms and present a list of results in an order based on rankings and criteria known only to the search engine. The results list may span pages and pages and display every item in a uniform manner over (in some cases) millions of web pages. This willfully removes context and allows the user to see only a fraction of the results at a given time. The ordering of the lists impacts how search engines earn revenue. Search engines sell advertising near the top of lists (paid search) from companies that seek to optimize their data to increase their search ranking (search engine optimization, or SEO). The lack of visual differentiation and opaque methodology make comparing objects difficult and forces users to guess at the relative relevance of each item.
Existing graphical user interfaces presenting information in grids are also problematic. With cable and satellite television, for instance, hundreds of channels may be available for viewing at a time. In traditional methods, a channel guide typically presents television programming in a grid, listing channels vertically and broadcast times horizontally. E-commerce sites also use grids. AMAZON.com, for instance, provides a customer with four ways to navigate items for sale: GRIDS: rectangular grids of product images that can run for multiple pages; MENUS: that force shoppers to systematically narrow choice as they seek to find a product or product category; RECOMMENDATIONS: an algorithm used to present a handful of choices without context based on what a shopper might like; or SEARCH: the proactive system described above. These methods do not simplify the shopping process and, in some cases, narrow the choices offered by the retailer.
While there are many existing systems for displaying information, these types of systems can be improved.